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In the 4Th Millennium BC the Nile Delta Was Settled by a Group of People Described by Archaeologists As the Lower Egyptian Culture

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In the 4Th Millennium BC the Nile Delta Was Settled by a Group of People Described by Archaeologists As the Lower Egyptian Culture The Nile Delta as a centre of cultural interactions between Upper Egypt and the Southern Levant in the 4th millennium BC Studies in African Archaeology 13 SOME REMARKS ON THE VISITORS IN THE NILE DELTA TH IN THE 4 MILLENNIUM BC AgNiesZkA mącZyŃskA Poznań Archaeological Museum, Poznań, Poland 1. introduction In the 4th millennium BC the Nile Delta was settled by a group of people described by archaeologists as the Lower Egyptian culture. Most of the sites belonging to this cultural unit have been recorded in the central and eastern part of northern Egypt (Fig. 1). The western and northern parts of this region is still poorly recognized, however, the occupa- tion of the Lower Egyptian culture has been already attested at some sites, e.g. Buto and Sais (vON Der wAy 1997; köhler 1993; 1998: wilsON 2006; this volume). The origins of the Lower Egyptian culture are not clearly known, but they should be linked probably with the first agricultural communities inhabiting the region, i.e. Merimde and el-Omari cultures (levy & vAN DeN briNk 2002: 10; midant-reyNes 1992: 206; 2003: 53). The Lower Egyptian culture was the first fully agricultural community in Egypt. In the 4th millennium BC northern Egypt in general and the Nile Delta in particular offered very favourable conditions for farming and animal breeding. Periodic inundations of the Nile irrigated and fertilized the soil, while warm and humid climate was conducive to vegetation. Agriculture and herding were the basic forms of food production in the region. Hunting and gathering seem to have been of lesser importance as compared to the earlier times (mącZyŃskA 2013: 101-106). The production of tools and other items in Lower Egypt relied mostly on locally available material (clay, flint, stone, bone), and it did not involve any sophisticated techniques. The resources were obtained from the Delta area and possibly from its direct vicinity. The dominant group of Lower Egyptian artefacts consists of strictly practical household items. Specialisation in Lower Egypt can be observed only with regard to selected areas 182 AGNIESzKA MąCzyńSKA Figure 1. The most important sites of the Lower Egyptian culture. of manufacturing where particular skills were required (e.g. stone vessel production; beer production), whereas simple objects and implements were made on a household basis (mącZyŃskA 2013: 112-178; in press a). The Lower Egyptian culture was not an isolated society. The communities inhabiting northern Egypt maintained contacts with Naqadans from the south and the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze I societies from the east. Upper Egyptian and Southern Levantine imports registered at Lower Egyptian sites clearly attest the exchange of goods and information between the regions in question (mącZyŃskA 2004: 435-437; 2006: 945- 957; 2008: 761-779; 2013). 183 SOME REMARKS ON THE VISITORS IN THE NILE Delta IN THE 4TH MILLENNIUM BC 2. interActions between the southern LevAnt And the niLe deLtA The small distance between the Nile Delta and the Southern Levant was probably one of the factors that influenced the character of contacts between the two regions (hAyes 1965: 122; weTTersTrOm 1993: 200). The early traces of these relations can be found in the early Neolithic material recorded at the sites of Lower Egypt, i.e. Fayum, Merimde and Wadi Hof; however, these finds are not easy to interpret (mącZyŃskA 2008: 765-766; shirAi 2010). In the beginning of the 4th millennium BC the Lower Egyptian and the Late Chalcolithic Southern Levantine communities entered probably a new phase of contacts. The Lower Egyptian culture was perhaps the first one with such a significantnumber of Southern Levantine imports recorded at its sites. The quantity of Lower Egyptian items from this period found in the Southern Levant, however, is not so considerable (brAuN & vAN DeN briNk 2008; mącZyŃskA 2008: 769-770; 2013: 181-200). Due to the scarcity of records, the early relations between the Nile Delta and the Southern Levant are hardly discussed by scholars. The interpretations concerning this problem are often limited to the notions about the sporadic character of contacts. However, most authors are of the opinion that the early relations between both the regions involved the exchange of goods and ideas (levy & vAN DeN briNk 2002: 18-19; De MirOscheDJi 2002: 39-40; brAuN & vAN DeN briNk 2008: 644-650; guyOT 2008: 709-714; brAuN 2011: 107-108). According to P. De mirOscheDJi (2002: 39-40) and F. guyOT (2008: 714) the party in charge of organising this exchange were the Southern Levantines. In P. De mirOscheDJi’s view the first Southern Levantines appeared in Lower Egypt in order to recognise the resources occurring in this region. In the opinion of F. guyOT (2008: 714) the Lower and Upper Egyptian societies took part in the exchange rather than organised it. However, some changes in the character of contacts can be observed in the middle of Naqada II period. In the opinion of the author at that time the local societies not only took part in, but probably also organised the exchange of goods and ideas in an active way. Moreover, they benefited from these contacts, adopted new techniques and raw materials, i.e. mudbrick architecture, beer production, the use of copper (mącZyŃskA in press e). Although the organisation of exchange itself is still a subject of discussion, we cannot exclude that the inhabitants of the Southern Levant came to Lower Egypt. Since the character of contacts between the two regions involved mostly trade activities, the visitors were probably in large part traders or intermediaries. 2.1. ArchAeoLogicAL evidence Archaeological evidence for the interaction between the societies of the Nile Delta and the Southern Levant consists mostly of imports and imitations registered at Lower Egyptian sites, including pottery, flints, stone and copper items. Additionally, special attention should be paid to the material recorded at 3 sites: Maadi, Buto and Minshat Abu Omar, indicating the presence of Southern Levantines in the region (riZkANA & seeher 1987; 1989: 49-55; watriN 2000; fAlTiNgs 2002; hArTuNg et al. 2003). 184 AGNIESzKA MąCzyńSKA 2.1.1. Maadi According to I. riZkANA and J. seeher (1987: 31) Southern Levantine pottery makes up less than 3% of the material recorded at Maadi settlement. Its eastern origin has been confirmed by petrographic analyses carried out by N. POrat (POrat & seeher 1988: 215-228). The dominant form of the Levantine pottery recorded at Maadi is represented by round jars with wide, flat bases, high and well discernible shoulders, and roughly distinguished tabular or conical necks constituting approx. 1/3 of the vessel’s height. The bottom part of the vessel is usually V-shaped, and the largest diameter is immediately under the neck. Jars of this kind were most probably used for storing goods brought in from the Southern Levant. Nearly all imported jars had lug or ledge handles (riZkANA & seeher 1987: 53, pls. 72-77). Plastic knobs were fitted to jar handles as decoration. The imported pottery recorded at Maadi includes also a fragment of a jar decorated with rows of short, incised strokes and a fragment with a roughly vertical, parallel painted lines (riZkANA & seeher 1987: 52-54, pls. 39:2, 77:5,7; TuTuNDžić 1993: 33-55; watriN 1999). Flint tools assemblage registered at Maadi includes items showing close links to the Southern Levantine tradition, such as tabular scrapers and Canaanean sickle blades (riZkANA & seeher 1985: figs. 7, 10). Both kinds of tools were made of high quality flint, probably in specialized workshops. The origin of the raw material can be identified only in the case of scrapers. It appears that they were made from flint extracted in the western part of the Negev Desert. Analogous scarpers were quite common in the Levant. The manufacturing technology of Canaanean blades, on the other hand, was much more widespread in terms of territorial range. They have been found not only at the Early Bronze sites in the Southern Levant and Lebanon, but also in Syria, Iraq and Kazakhstan (riZkANA & seeher 1985: 237-254). The most remarkable stone items imported from Canaan to Maadi include basalt discs (riZkANA & seeher 1985: fig. 11; 1988: pl. 95). According to N.P Orat, who carried out a petrographic analysis of these items, the raw material bears characteristics of basalt extracted at the Negev Desert, and used in the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze I in the Southern Levant. However, the scholar noticed that similar resource occurs also in the area of the Golan Heights, in Galilee and in Jordan, and it is thus possible that the material came from one of those locations. Cedar wood artefacts are yet another group of items most likely imported from the east. The objects found at Maadi include a cedar vessel lid and several small cedar sticks, probably used as incense. It has not been determined whether they were manufactured locally or imported to the Delta as ready-made products (riZkANA & seeher 1989: 25). Among other objects of the Southern Levantine origin are nine bone spatulas found in a cache (riZkANA & seeher 1989: 22, pl. 8:4-15). Similar spatulas made of calf ribs are known from Chalcolithic sites such as Teleilat Ghassul, where they were commonly used as weaving tools (mAllON et al. 1934: 77). Imports from the Levant include also giant shells of Tridacna maxima and Tridacna squamos, native to the Bay of Suez and the Red 185 SOME REMARKS ON THE VISITORS IN THE NILE Delta IN THE 4TH MILLENNIUM BC Sea (riZkANA & seeher 1989: 21), which were used at Maadi as a kind of containers. A turquoise bead recorded at the site is another artefact considered to have been of eastern origin. The raw material in this case could have been mined in the southern Sinai (riZkANA & seeher 1989: 109).
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